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I had high hopes for 2009. What can I say? Each year since 2006 simply outdid the previous year. And it’s been exciting. You know, you’ve had all these young artists, most of whom don’t fall into any of the retro cliches that defined the earlier part of the decade, finally using their influences of the past to create something refreshingly original and timeless all at the same time: Nicole Atkins, Vampire Weekend, The Raveonettes, The Kills, The Pierces, The Fratellis, The Pipettes, The Virgins (notice all the “The” bands?). Even mainstream artists like Outkast, Gnarls Barkley and, dare I say, Christina Aguilera were getting it done.
So what’s the verdict in 2009? Not so good–and that’s not to take anything away from any of the artists who made my list. It’s just that last year, I had to strive to whittle it down to 10 albums. And then there were 10 honorable mentions. To be fair, I came home from Paste magazine with about 300 CDs, most of which I haven’t listened to, so there may be a few hidden gems I’ve yet to discover. Perhaps I missed something; feel free to call me out.
The rules: no compilations, reissues or EPs. Had to be an original full-length album released this calendar year, either in the U.S. or overseas.
So here’s what I scrounged up, with a few honorable mentions:
10. Hotel St. George – City Boy Lemon
I feel bad because I’ve been following this San Diego quartet the past year and a half. They weren’t eligible for my 2008 albums because they’d only released a couple EPs, but this year, they actually had an album… and I almost forgot about them while compiling this list! Enough prologue. On the surface, it’s in-your-face power-pop fueled by frontman Matt Binder’s snotty vocals. But listen closer and you quickly discover these guys actually have great discipline when it comes to musical ability and song structure while never compromising the immediacy the modern music-listener demands. (Read my full review at Saw*Kick here.)
9. The Felice Brothers – Yonder is the Clock
The legendary Doug Hite calls them carpetbaggers. And yeah, they were definitely upstaged by opener Justin Townes Earle at the 2008 Kent State Folk Festival. But on tape, the boys from the Catskill Mountains rarely hit a bad note. It’s tough to say if Yonder is the Clock tops the 2008 self-titled record, but some of these songs are more distinguishable and rowdy, at times borderlining all-out rock more than the folky vagabond image they’ve created for themselves. (See my video review at Paste here.)
The Felice Brothers on MySpace
8. Paleface – The Show is on the Road
Once a troubled anti-folk pioneer of the early ’90s mentored by famed Ramones manager Danny Fields, Paleface has come a long way from his alcohol-related problems that nearly killed him a decade ago. Relocated from NYC to N.C. and reformed as a duo with his lovely girlfriend, Mo Samalot, the singer/songwriter has created a stripped-down yet atmospheric collection of songs. In his own words to me: “It’s a nice little record, and we had fun making it. It’s not gonna tear down the walls and make a million dollars and whatever.” No, but it sure does get stuck in your head. (Read my full interview with the duo at Paste here.)
7. The Von Bondies – Love Hate and Then There’s You
All I can say is FINALLY! I’ve been waiting for this album since 2004′s Pawn Shoppe Heart. And while a five-year wait couldn’t yield something better than that record or 2001′s Lack of Communication, I got over that really quick when I could blast tracks like “Pale Bride” and the boppin’ “Accidents Will Happen” (not a cover of the brilliant Elvis Costello song) out my car window. It’s not groundbreaking. I probably won’t like it 10 years from now. But it provided me a burst of enjoyment when I needed some loud music. So kill me.
6. The Peekers – Life in the Air
Ever hear a band you really enjoy but have trouble describing them in a conversation? I’m having that problem right now, and I have the luxury of sitting here, thinking through each word I type. Words that come to me while listening to The Peekers: The Beatles, The Beach Boys, soulful, carefree, cabaret… cute? I don’t know, I took a stab at it earlier this year when I volunteered to write a blurb for the album at Paste. I think that came out a lot better. Read it here.
5. The Raveonettes – In and Out of Control
What a difference a year makes. Indisputably my #1 artist of 2008 with a perfect album in Lust Lust Lust, the Danish duo barely cracks my top five of 2009. But there’s something to be said about Sune Rose Wagner’s sense of urgency and tenacity to craft the perfect pop album. After the noise machine that was Lust, Wagner set out to create something more hurried, more polished, more mainstream. He succeeded–without sacrificing the fuzzed-out guitars, I might add. It’s an interesting effort, kind of summing up the dilemma with which the Raveonettes are continually faced: mainstream success or obscurity? When they’re putting out music this good this often, the better question is, “Who cares?”
4. Weezer – Raditude
Again, what a difference a year makes. While I enjoyed 2008′s Red Album, I felt somewhat slighted that one of my favorite all-time bands couldn’t deliver one of my favorite albums of the year. Needless to say Raditude‘s cover art had me thinking nothing would change in 2009. Boy, was I wrong. Not only is it a more cohesive effort, “(If You’re Wondering if I Want You to) I Want You to” easily joins the Weezer classics catalog. (For me, it almost perfectly described my first real relationship junior year of high school.) A couple of re-recorded tracks from Rivers Cuomo’s last Alone compilation make it to the disc, most notably the heartstrings-pulling album closer, “I Don’t Want to Let You Go.”
3. Gliss – Devotion Implosion
When your team is on the verge of going to the World Series and you can’t watch the gateway game because you’re stuck in some club watching some unknown band switch instruments in between songs, your patience wears thin. That was two years ago. But let me state for the record just how wrong I was that night. I love these guys (and girl). Their sophomore album is a bleak noisy blast of sex and vanity, but underneath all the blankets of reverb, guitars and harmonies is something not heard on their 2007 debut: hope? A deeper emotion? It’s almost like they decided crack open the blinds on a bright sunny day with songs like “Morning Light” and “Beauty.” Yeah, it’s still pretty dark, but a few golden rays have found their way inside. (Read my interview with the trio at Paste here.)
2. Slow Club – Yeah So
A few months ago I saw something interesting on one of the music websites. Either the NME or Blender, I think, but I can’t seem to figure it out. That’s not important. What matters is the cool little video for a simple catchy song called “Trophy Club.” I quickly MySpace friended the British boy-girl duo behind the track and forgot about them–until I saw they were releasing a Christmas EP. Again, I was drawn to the folky popsters playful back-and-forth vocals. The setup is so simple that it gives Charles Watson and Rebecca Taylor (my new crush) plenty of room to breathe and build on each others energy. Finally, I ordered the album from Amazon UK, received it this past Saturday and, perhaps unfairly, rushed it to my #2 album of the year. Yeah, it’s that good. Just watch the “It Doesn’t Have to Be Beautiful” video and tell me you’re not in love:
1. Justin Townes Earle – Midnight at the Movies
There’s very little I can say about Justin Townes Earle that I haven’t already said a million times. He’s absolutely electric–electric in the way that he doesn’t even need electricity. In fact, the fewer distractions around him the better. People ask me to describe his sound. “Well, he’s kind of old-school country. Some honky tonk, bop, blues, folk, a little rockabilly…” But no matter how hard I try, my summations never do him justice in conversation. The truth is, he’s simply a great performer. When you see him live, he’s in complete control of every nuance. The audience is his. It doesn’t matter if you went in skeptical. If you walk into a Justin Townes Earle show, you are coming out a fan. It’s that simple. Running just 32 minutes over 12 tracks, this album in particular captures the stripped-down intensity of the live set better than The Good Life with tracks like “They Killed John Henry” and “Halfway to Jackson.” But the true excitement comes in the moment–the being there. The albums are there just to tide you over. (Read my full review at Paste here.)
Justin Townes Earle on MySpace
The Honorable Mentions (in no particular order):
Annabel – Each and Everyone
William Elliott Whitmore – Animals in the Dark
Rancid – Let the Dominoes Fall
Placebo – Battle For the Sun
Cut Off Your Hands – You and I
My Favorite Reissues
Buddy Holly – The Memorial Collection
Buddy Holly – Down the Line: Rarities
The Kills – Keep on Your Mean Side
Albums I Meant to Pick Up But Haven’t… Yet
A Place to Bury Strangers – Exploding Head
The Riverdales – Invasion USA
The Kabeedies – Rumpus
AFI – Crash Love
Albums I’m Looking Forward to in 2010
Both of the new Nicole Atkins records
Magic Wands
…and a slew of other stuff I can’t think of.
Best Find
The Prissteens – Scandal, Controversy & Romance (1998)(took a $1 chance at Criminal Records in Atlanta. Paid off big time. Booya!)
Sharin and Sune in bubble heaven
Yes, my blog visits have almost flatlined. No, I’m not dead… yet. Just looking for work and failing miserably.
Anyways, as a McCarthy’s Media Menace favorite, I thought I should update you on some important Raveonettes news. The band released the first single from the forthcoming album, In and Out Of Control (released Oct. 6 through Vice Records). You may already be familiar with the track as it was one of the demos we heard earlier this summer. The finished version of the track “Last Dance” is currently available through Entertainment Weekly’s website. Where the demo sounds somewhat flimsy, this one is perfectly and powerfully polished. Mainstream? Yes. Watered-down? Nah. I’d say if anything, where the band cut out a very exclusive audience with past releases, this song not only includes those folks, but many of the indie-snobs who thrust bands like Vampire Weekend and Passion Pit into the spotlight.
Album art
The Raveonettes have finished recording their latest album, In and Out of Control, due out on Vice Records Oct. 6. Throughout the process, the Danish twosome gave us an intimate in-studio glimpse through the release of rough demos and the transmission of live video chats and recording sessions.
Now, two months away from the record’s release, the band is teasing us yet again with the track “Suicide,” which is available for listen and download through Pitchfork. This basically reinforces what I’ve already speculated in earlier posts regarding the new record: bubblegum pop progressions and harmonies mixed with pitch black, darker-than-ever lyricism. The combination of the sparse surf guitar and drum machine in the verse creates the perfect setup for the booming, tightly wound chorus.
As mentioned above, the new album is called In and Out of Control. So where is the self-titled track we were treated to earlier? The 11-song tracklisting is available to view at Barnes & Noble, but “In and Out of Control” is nowhere to be found, leading me to believe they changed the name. Honestly, I think that would make a great album-opener, so perhaps that track became “Bang!” We shall see…
Here’s the full tracklist for your viewing pleasure:
1. Bang!
2. Gone Forever
3. Last Dance
4. Boys Who Rape (Should All Be Destroyed)
5. Heart of Stone
6. Oh, I Buried You Today
7. Suicide
8. D.R.U.G.S.
9. Breaking Into Cars
10. Break Up Girls!
11. Wine
Photo taken by J.J. McCarthy
You can’t really ask for much more these days if you’re a Raveonettes fan. Depending on where you lived, they released an album in either late-2007 or early-2008. Then, the duo released a series of four EPs throughout the final quarter of last year. Early this year, the band announced it was headed to the studio to record a new album that would be released Sept. 1.
Now, if all of that wasn’t enough, Sune Rose Wagner and Sharin Foo are sharing demos from their overseas romp in Denmark. (I say overseas because although they are Denmark natives, both have since relocated to the States.) Today they released the third demo in as many days, titled “In and Out of Control.” (You can download it here.) This one hooks you from opening second and doesn’t let go. Great progression — just gets catchier and catchier. This is the most “Raveonettes” of the three tracks released so far, but the bass riff in the middle and the guitar guiding the chorus make it all sound so explosive and fresh.
I’m wondering if by the time they’re done giving us these demos we’ll have nearly the full album. Not the finished product, but the songs. What do you think? If they release more over the weekend, I’ll post them here just like all the others.
In other related Raveonettes news, Wagner has stressed via Twitter and MySpace that these demos are strictly for your enjoyment. Says the frontman:
“It seems like the media is a bit confused about what we’re doing right now in regards to inviting you into the recording process. I’ve read some articles about how we ‘need’ help from our fans which obviously is not true. We’re totally tuned into what we’re doing and we’re making a fucking great album. I always appreciate and believe that people should be able to leave comments but we’re not looking for production or songwriting help. Hope that clarifies it.”
